Clinton's effective Obama embrace

Former President Clinton’s stemwinder at the Time Warner Cable Arena ran longer than his infamous 1988 convention keynote speech as he urged voters to give President Barack Obama a second chance in office.

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In classic Clinton style, the 48-minute nominating address frequently digressed from the script, the teleprompter freezing as the 42nd president ticked off statistics and improvised lines about Paul Ryan’s “brass” and the signal his wife and Obama have sent about avoiding politics as a “blood sport.” He easily blew past the 11 p.m. prime-time TV cutoff, but the networks stayed with him.

In his speech, Clinton was clearly, if indulgently, enjoying himself in a way that Obama rarely seems to, as he prosecuted the case on the 44th president’s behalf in less than an hour better than the Oval Office occupant has been able to over the past two years The crowd went wild repeatedly.

It was a display of political force that underscored what a singular figure Clinton is in American politics, in either party.

The Republicans have no one comparable to make a similar case on their side — the GOP’s most recent president, George W. Bush, steered clear of his party’s convention as the public still struggles with its feelings about his time in office.

Clinton’s passionate, fist-to-the-podium speech is more than enough to suppress, if not totally squelch, the recurring questions about the relationship between the current and former president. They embraced in a warm hug at the end, one that was truly emotional.

When Obama came onstage after the speech was over, Clinton bowed deeply as the president approached.

While the task at hand was firmly focused on Obama, the speculation about Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and whether she will run again for president in four years has been threaded throughout the convention. Clinton, barred by the nature of her job from taking part in politics, was halfway around the world in East Timor while Democrats gathered, joking to reporters that she was looking forward to reading the “as-delivered” version of her husband’s remarks as opposed to the text.

Bill Clinton’s speech was focused squarely on the middle class and the white working-class voters Obama needs to beat Mitt Romney. Clinton never mentioned Bain Capital or Romney’s business career, a topic that caused him trouble when the centrist Democrat spoke frankly about the Obama campaign’s attacks on that front months ago, but he checked every other box — Medicare, health care, and welfare.

“If you’ll renew the president’s contract you will feel” life improving, he told the crowd. “I want to nominate a man who is cool on the outside but who burns for America on the inside.”

And Clinton also answered, emphatically, the question Obama’s aides struggled with on the Sunday morning shows and which Republicans have pointed to throughout the week: “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” The answer, Clinton said, was a strong “Yes!” The delegates in the convention hall agreed with him.